comMITTed to Romney!

From The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney isn’t talking about Mitt Romney.
He’s talking about John McCain, about energizing the party base, about strong candidates for a “strong economy, strong families and strong military.”
The former presidential candidate spent more than a year officially on the trail, talking himself up to voters as he sought the Republican nomination for the White House. But now he has a new role: boosting other Republicans.
The move, which brought Romney back to Utah last week to join President Bush in another fundraising blitz, is meant to prove Romney is a loyal soldier, and to help burnish his credentials for a possible White House bid in the future.
Romney, McCain’s former chief rival, now is one of the Arizona senator’s most active, effective fundraisers and cheerleaders. The head of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City appears to have headlined more events than any of the large field of former GOP presidential candidates and may be on track to raise the most money of the pack.
“I could go back to the private sector but I believe what I said during my campaign,” Romney told The Wall Street Journal recently. “I think this is a very critical time for the country. And I was helped by a lot of people and turning back to entirely personal pursuits would not be consistent with the many contributions of time and resources that came my way. So I’m going to help Senator McCain and other people who I think would make a difference.”
In a sense, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, never left the trail when he ended his campaign last February. He has criss-crossed the country serving as a surrogate for McCain and backed the nominee-in-waiting on multiple television appearances.
McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Romney has played a large role in the campaign and has been a “very, very active” surrogate.
“Governor Romney has been a tremendous help and we value his support,” Sadosky said.
Romney has spoken at the state party conventions in Nevada and Maine, and the Lancaster GOP convention in Pennsylvania. Saturday, he hit the Colorado Republican Convention and he’s slated to appear for McCain at the conventions in Oregon and Texas within the next two weeks.
Romney also is offering his help to boost McCain’s coffers, and has become essentially a Western warrior for McCain, drumming up support in areas where Romney is popular.
This week, Romney, with help from President Bush, raised about $2 million for McCain and the party in a fundraiser at his Deer Valley home. Since withdrawing, this was Romney’s second trip to raise money in Utah, the state second only to California in financial donations for Romney’s failed bid.
Romney also has called on his top money raisers to work on McCain’s behalf, inviting many of them to Houston in early May to meet the senator and jump on the Straight Talk Express.
Romney’s aggressive support for McCain has many pundits saying he is actively campaigning to be McCain’s running mate.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom dismisses such talk.
“We’re not going to join the . . . guessing game over who is going to be John McCain’s running mate,” FehrnÂstrom said. “That is not what Gov. Romney is focusing on. His focus is on helping John McCain and other Republicans get elected.”
To that end, Romney recently launched a new political action committee, the Free and Strong America PAC.
The group, with a post office box in his home of Belmont, Mass., is aimed at helping elect Republicans at all levels. Romney’s former deputy chief of staff and conservative outreach guru, Peter Flaherty, is serving as executive director.
Former senior adviser Tom Rath, who helped shepherd President Bush through the New Hampshire primary in 2000, says Romney has been getting some “positive feedback” from stumping for McCain and some people who weren’t sure of him as a candidate are now getting to know and like him better.
“He likes being involved, is getting really engaged on the ‘we need to elect John McCain’ message and feels he’s helping,” Rath says.
“He’s not spending much if any time thinking about V.P.,” Rath adds. “He knows it’s a long shot at best and basically out of his control, and he’s not a guy who worries too much about things he can’t control.”
Romney acknowledged to the Journal that he’d like to be the nominee, but he’s doing his best to pump the party up nonetheless.
“I would rather have the shoe on my foot but you recognize that when you don’t win, then, in some respects, I think you have a responsibility to help the person that does,” Romney told the newspaper.
tburr@sltrib.com

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